60 Days to Change my Ways
by FaximumEverdeen
Summary: Max's life has been what she thinks is a waste, and seemingly, so does everyone else. But when two special people step into her life and give her 60 days to turn herself around, will she make it in time? Fax later on.
1. Last Thoughts

**Summary: Max's life has been what she thinks is a waste, and seemingly, so does everyone else. But when two special people step into her life and give her 60 days to turn herself around, will she have the strength to make it in time?**

**A/N: As I was reading a bunch of other fics, I realised that the plot for my other story, Mindgames, might be a bit boring, so I'm starting this one too, which will be my own creation as far as I can tell. If you want me to continue the other one, then I'll need reviews to let me know what you think, because I'm not sure if it's good enough.**

**So basically, in this story, Max is everything she never wanted to be. Overweight, ugly, dangerous, mean, lonely, violent, dumb, and always in detention. She has no friends, and not even her parents are supportive. But when two new kids move into her school, all they want to do is help her, so they set up a 60-day plan to change her life completely. But Max has already sunk into depression. Will they be able to pull her out of it in time?**

**You might not like the way I've made Max, but please give it a chance. This story is about how she changes her life with the help of her new friends, and after sixty days, I'll probably still be continuing it, about how she gets revenge on people who bullied her or something. Heh {; And don't worry, though only two of them are helping her, the whole Flock will be part of the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride. I'd probably have exploded with happiness long ago if I did. c:**

**-Faximum**

Max's P.O.V.

**Days: 60**

_High school. Another way they torture children. But what did children ever do to adults for them to put us through it? Apart from me of course. I'm a waste of space. The only people who have never told me so are my new friends, who are, after just over a week, already the most important people in my life. I tell myself that over and over as I doodle stars around the number 60. That's the number of days I have. And I want to start right away._

"_Max!" her voice brings an ear-to-ear smile to my face, and I turn to see Nudge trotting towards the swings where I'm sitting. I'm in the local park with my sketch book. School ended an hour ago, and we arranged to meet here at exactly 3pm. Nudge is right on time._

"_Hey, Nudge," I reply as she sits on the swing next to me. "Is he here yet?"_

"_I just saw his car pulling up." She smiles, which only makes me happier. I don't think I've ever been more hopeful as Nudge shows me a notepad. "I listed all the things we have to do, and made a schedule of how we're going to start off today." She hands it to me and I read it eagerly, hardly noticing as a tall boy with strawberry blond hair approaches._

"_Iggy!" I look up to see him reading over my shoulder. He smiles at me. _

"_We'd better get started on this," he says, pulling me off of the swing and towards the white lines painted on the grass. "First of all, running." We stand in a line, then Iggy whistles with his fingers and we start running. Usually, running is painful – not only physically, but mentally, because I can never stop thinking about how fast the other kids are going, and that I want to do that too, and how they all point and laugh when they've lapped me twice. But not today. Today, I have Iggy and Nudge._

"_Pump your arms and take long strides, Max," Nudge advises, bringing me back to reality, and I notice they're keeping pace with me. Nobody's ever tried to do that before. I try to copy what she's doing, and it works a bit. Iggy is leaning forward a bit, so I do that too. We run for about half an hour until I need to rest, and we sit on the bench for ten minutes before starting again. We do this at intervals, until one moment where we sit on the track and Iggy says something that surprises me._

"_We've been running for three hours now. What's next?" his unseeing eyes look bright and full of energy, and I wonder if that's always how you feel when you're slim. I can't wait to find out._

"_I say we hit the hay for today. Tomorrow's Saturday. That means we can go through a lot of this stuff." Nudge suggests, getting slowly up. "We'll meet back at the swings at 11am."_

"_Good."_

I close my diary and hug it to my chest, closing my eyes, and flop backwards onto the bed. I want to remember these moments forever; the moments where I had friends, the moments where I had friends that cared so much. I can just see it now – day 61. I'll strut confidently into school, slim and pretty, and do well in my subjects. And plot up a sweet little bowl of steaming revenge.

I lock my diary in the drawer beside my bed and bring a towel to the bathroom. Inside, I step in the shower and turn on the hot water. The water feels nice, like it's symbolically washing away the worries of my day. I soap myself down, rinse it off quickly and step out, feeling clean and fresh. I wrap a towel around my body and get some pyjamas on the way to my bedroom. Then I change and sit in the bed, turn my phone on and slowly let myself fall asleep to the sound of Paramore.

_Close your eyes and make believe  
This is where you want to be  
Forgetting all the memories,  
Try to forget love cause love's forgotten me  
Well hey, hey baby, it's never too late pretty soon you won't remember a thing  
And I'll be distant as stars reminiscing  
Your heart's been wasted on me_

Their names are the last things in my head before I fall into unconsciousness.

Nudge. Iggy.

Iggy. Nudge.


	2. My Blessings

**A/N: First of all, thank you three for the reviews: I'm raining on your parade, kEePtHeHeAt and all-thats-interesting. I wasn't expecting many, and they kept me happy so thanks. **

**And, also, I would have updated sooner but there was a lot of stuff my mum was making me do today so yeah. :/ But here it is!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Meh. :L**

**-Faximum**

Max's P.O.V.

**Days: 59**

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Be-oof!_

_The dreaded alarm clock. I swear the only invented these to annoy everyone to hell. I try to smack mine, but it's too far away for my arm, so I end up rolling out of bed and plonking on the floor in a messy heap. "Mhhrff," I mumble, looking up at the clock, which isn't very high anymore since I knocked that off the nightstand too. It reads 10am, and I suddenly feel giddy and energetic. I can't remember why, since my life has been so terrible. But I get up and arrange my bed anyway, then go to my wardrobe. It's not nice to look into – not because the clothes aren't pretty, but because of the size of them. They're too big for the average girl. Oh…_

_I pick out a light blue V-neck and some jeggings to change into, brush my hair and my teeth, and then make my way downstairs for breakfast. My parents are down here; my mum washing up some dishes in the sink and my dad reading a newspaper on the sofa. "Hi mum, hi dad."_

"_Hi, honey." My father looks up from his paper and smiles at me, but I can see the glint of disappointment in his eyes when he looks at what his only daughter's become. It stabs me, but I try not to think about it as I make some toast and take an apple out of the fridge. When I hear the toaster ding and the toast pops up, I butter it and eat it in the lounge. It's 10:30am, says my TV._

_When I'm done, I wash my face and get ready to go out. I figure I could go walking today. That would be good. "I'm going for a walk!" I leave when I hear a muffled response from the lounge, and lock the door behind me. Something buzzes at me from my pocket, and I jump, thinking a bee has found its way into my jeggings, then I remember it's just my phone, which says I have 1 new message._

_Nudge: 17732-90835: Sent 10:55am: Forwarded to Iggy: __Day 59. Park in 5 minutes. See you there! xx_

_Oh! How could I possibly have forgotten? I start jogging towards the park, not wanting to be late. This is all for me, anyway, so it would just be rude, and I don't want to be rude to them. I wonder what Nudge has planned for me today. What I want to do first of all is lose weight, but everything counts._

_When I finally reach the park, it's 10:02 and they're both sitting on the swings. "Hey!" I call, running up to them. "What are we doing today?" I add eagerly. I want to get started ASAP._

"_We are going to the mall." Nudge announces triumphantly. Why! Why do I have to go to the mall! Apparently she sees my expression and frowns. "Well, you don't exactly have the most up-to-date styles," she points out, motioning to my clothes. No, I guess I don't._

"_But I want to lose weight, and if we get clothes now, they'll be too big." She only shakes her head when I try to explain why this isn't a good idea, and folds her arms stubbornly._

"_Which is why, instead of the size you buy now, we are going to buy 15-16s. You'll fit into them when we're finished with you."_

_I only realise he's been silent when Iggy finally pipes up. "And where do I fit into all of this? I'm a guy. I don't know anything about girl fashion."_

"_We'll need a boy's point of view too." She drags us by our wrists towards Iggy's car (it's his dad's, because he doesn't have one of his own yet), and I realise she's relentless about this. However much we complain, she is going to take us clothes shopping and there's nothing we can do about it. I get into the back silently, as Iggy slides into the driver's seat and Nudge sits next to him. He probably doesn't know how to get to the mall quickly, and you can bet Nudge does._

_We set off, and it turns out, he's been shopping more than I expected, so it only takes about 15 minutes. Once we're there, Nudge instinctively squeals as she gets out and pulls us through the huge double doors. The entrance is all made of big glass panels, to make the place seem more inviting I guess. You can see all the shops. Right in the entrance is a party store and a milkshake bar, but from then on it's mostly shoes and accessories. Nudge says that's not what we're looking for, and leads us expertly around some corners, up an escalator, down some hallways, to her own little heaven._

_Clothes._

"_Eee! Come on!" she squeaks, rushing towards a shop called 'Ramona's Boutique.' It has shiny white mannequins in the windows, all sporting bright summer styles and floaty outfits. We follow her reluctantly in, and she's already chatting excitedly with a woman behind the counter. Nudge obviously comes here a lot – they seem to be on a first-name basis, and talking like 'BFFS'. She turns and sees us. "This is Max and Iggy, my best friends. We're here to completely remake Max's look!"_

"_Ooh goody!" the woman says, hurrying round the counter to meet us. "Hi, I'm Ramona." She holds out her hand, and we shake it in turn. She gives us a smile that says, 'any friend of Nudge's is a friend of mine'. I expect Nudge is good friends with all the store owners around here._

"_I'm Max." I say, just to clarify. It's usually a boy's name after all, so she might not have guessed. Then she spreads her arms out like she's going to ask for a group hug, but I'm glad she doesn't._

"_I trust you'll be safe in Nudge's hands!" she says, making her way back behind the desk again, then gives the blushing girl a pointed look. "I hope." Nudge giggles, grabs our hands and runs into the tall aisles of T-shirts, V-necks and batwing tops. There are clothes of all colours, shapes and sizes and the next few hours go by in a whiz. Iggy is really helpful too, and it turns out having a boy's eye is a good thing, because he can see what looks nice on a girl. We spend a few hours in the other shops too, and then wrap it all up at 6, making plans to meet on Sunday. I have to say, I had a lot of fun today._

I slide my diary into the drawer, having captured all the most important and cherished moments of my day. Not only did we change my style and renew my wardrobe, but there was a lot more exercise involved today than I would have expected. I'm so pleased.

I'm ready for bed, and I'm sitting in it, so I might as well sleep now. And as I click the light of, I take a moment to count my blessings. One, two.

One for each of my friends.

**A/N: Sorry it's not as long or thorough as it could have been, but I really have to go to bed now, so I'll see you tomorrow probably. Please review and tell me what you think of chapter 2! **


	3. Both Their Names

**A/N: Hola. I'm sorry I missed yesterday's update. I was going to do two today to make up for it, but I also have homework, my other story, and Guides at 7, so I'll see how much I can do. This chapter will be Sunday, and the next one will be Monday, which is when they go to school – that means we get to meet the rest of the flock! But here is the first one, so read & enjoy!**

** watch?v=egGMUZZ3bQE – WaveTraxx, A New Day**

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Max Ride, but I don't. So poop for me.**

**-Faximum**

Max's P.O.V.

**Days: 58**

_I'm already wide awake by the time I hear my parents stirring. It's 10:47 and time to get going to the park, so I quickly scrawl on a sticky note to leave on the fridge._

Gone to the park to meet friends. –Max

_Then I jog out, sliding my earphones in and listening to A New Day – WaveTraxx. It reminds me how every new day is a step closer to finally being who I want to be. I watch my feet for a while as they smack against the concrete, and I suddenly notice that my stomach seems flatter. I must have lost weight already! And it's only been a few days. If I carry on like this, I'll have such a slender figure, people will be telling me I need to gain weight. I can't even explain how I'm feeling right now._

_I've run through the line of trees surrounding the park and heading towards the swings. They're not here yet, so I check my watch, and see it's 10:56. This also makes me feel excited, because I've gotten faster. I wonder what Nudge has in store for me today? I've learned that her plans always include a_ lot _of fun, so I'm looking forward to it. _

_Just then, both of them appear out of Iggy's dad's car and hurry towards me. "Maaaaxx!" Nudge cheers as she runs at me, carrying a cardboard shopping bag in each hand. She plops herself onto the swing next to me and shoots me a lazy, devious smile. "Okay so today I thought we could improve your look for school so that lots of the people like you more because you are not always very nice to them." She says all of this in one breath, and it takes me a few moments to figure out what she means. Then I realise – no, I'm not nice to them. I never saw the point in being polite to bullies._

"_What do you mean?" I ask, still not understanding what she wants me to do._

"_Well, today we're going to try and make you appeal more, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, by testing some makeup on you." She tries a smile on me, but I just frown._

"_I guess that's fair."_

"_Good then. Let's goooo to my house!" she says, grabbing Iggy's hand and running back up to his car. She seems very hyper today. A little too much sugar on the corn flakes if you ask me._

_Oh, I see what she means now._

_I quickly follow them and jump in the car, slamming the door just as Iggy slams on the accelerator. We'll get to Nudge's pretty fast, because she lives closest to the park. Then we can get started on it. I get what she's saying about being unpleasant to the other students, but that's because even if they're not mean to me, I'm sure pretty much everyone makes their own little jokes about me behind my back. Well, I'm going to _totally_ show them up 58 days from now. Ha ha._

_Nudge's house is tall and modern, with clinically white walls and very stylish furniture. We say hi to her mum as we pass and head up the stairs. You'd really expect her room to be a full-on blast of painfully sparkly pink girliness, but it's not. It's actually very laid-back, or as Nudge would say, 'restricted'. It has smooth silver walls, a very soft white fluff carpet, and furniture that's different shades of grey. There's a white plant pot in the corner with a huge purple flower, a purple star-shaped rug and a few other purple bits. Overall, it looks fantastic._

"_Now, let's get started!" she plonks me down on a dark grey office chair and wheels me up to the pretty lilac vanity. Then she opens up the drawer, scoops up a whole pile of random glob, and makes me close my eyes. The last thing I will see before I open them is Iggy's expression: curious, encouraging, and slightly worried._

_The first thing she puts on goes under my eyes, and it's cold and runny, yet somehow it doesn't drip at all. She rubs it in, them brushes all over my cheeks with something that feels tickly. It goes on like this for what seems like yonks years, then as she's just finished pressing something onto my eyelids, she tells me to open them. Feeling her twist the chair to face the mirror, I slowly open them. And what I see in the mirror isn't me._

_It's beautiful._

_She has stand-out eyes, but they're soft enough to be stunning but humble at the same time. Her skin has an attractive tan, and is practically perfect. Her lips are full, shiny and defined but natural. Her cheekbones stand out enough to look really good but not unhealthy. Her smooth, arched eyebrows compliment her eyes perfectly and her eyelashes are long and jet black. Nudge seems also to have messed with her hair, because it's in neat, beautiful waves that frame her face perfectly. This person is so amazing, it can't be me._

_And it's not. It's Iggy._

_Ha, I got you there._

_I can't help it. My first words are, "OH MY GUACAMOLE NUDGE WHAT THE HOPPING HEAVENS DID YOU DO TO MY FACE?" Instead of being offended, she grins and rests her head on my shoulder, staring into the mirror at her masterpiece. I simply can't believe it. So much so that I beg her to do it again tomorrow just so she can prove to me that it's real._

I wrap a sapphire ribbon around my diary and tie a pretty bow. It seems fitting, because today was all about being pretty. You know what? I seriously love Nudge. And Iggy too – he couldn't really say anything for a while when Nudge was done with me. But the first words that came out of his mouth when he'd gathered himself were 'Max, you're so hot'. I actually burst out laughing and I couldn't stop because I'd never imagined anyone ever saying that to me. But I guess I'm learning a lot these days.

They're all I can think about when I go to sleep, and when I wake up too. Nudge and Iggy. There's so much hope held in both of those names that I can't even describe it.

**A/N: I hope you like it. Sorry, I probably won't be able to do another one tonight though, because I've got Guides in an hour, but I did my best. The next chapter I submit (with luck, tomorrow!) will be Monday: school day! Flock time! All I can say is, they aren't like the flock you're used to. But anyway, hope you enjoyed it, R&R please ;}**

**-Faximum**


	4. You Did Well

**A/N: Aloha peeps So yeah, this is Monday, and I hope you like it. I've already got a plan for what's going to happen todayy, and I've had a lot of ideas for what they're going to do in the future. I'm so excited -w-**

**Disclaimer: No soy dueño de Maximum Ride. Caca.**

**-Faximum**

Max's P.O.V.

**Days: 57**

"_Hey, thanks for the ride, Ig," I say, shutting the door and clicking in the seatbelt._

"_No problem," he waves off my thank you as he steps on the gas. As he's driving, I see his eyes flicker towards me once or twice, and I can't blame him. Nudge did my makeup again today. A bit more subtle though, since we're going to school. But it still looks fantastic. It always does, when Nudge does it. She's a… face artist? Gooey eyeliner professional?_

_Anyways._

_Iggy flicks a few switches without looking, and 'A New Day' starts playing. How does he know I love this? Man does his research. I sit back and listen, smiling to myself._

As the frost melts, by the first sunshine

And the mist, disappears

As the night, turns into day

You wake up, and feel free

A new day (a new day)

_When we arrive, Iggy pulls up close to the school as usual, and we get out. A few people look at me with curious expressions. Yeah, I have changed. A lot. But just you wait. I'll outshine you all._

_We walk in together, silently agreeing to go find Nudge. But instead of Nudge, the first people we see bring a frown to my face. At the head of the gang is Nick, a self-centred, so-called "bad-boy" who goes by Fang. I smirk. Really, what a stupid name. He has long, silky black hair, attractively sunkissed skin, obsidian eyes, and he's quite tall too – but I'll never admit that he's good-looking. Even if he frequently leaves his shirt at home. He's surrounded by a crew of other slouching grumps and girls in skimpy outfits that apparently classify as 'fashion'. Psshh. _Sure.

_Nick looks over his shoulder at me, and his dark eyebrows twitch up in surprise for a moment, then it's replaced by his normal arrogant smirk. He elbows the girl next to him, who has to-die-for wavy blonde hair down to her hips. She turns her piercing sapphire orbs on me and settles a smug glare on me. Her name is Angel, and any guy in the school would kill for her, but of course, she's Nick's girlfriend. It just wouldn't make sense any other way._

"_What happened to you, fatty?" she purrs viciously. Ig looks at me to see my reaction. I tilt my head up, completely blocking out their pins and needles, and I can feel his warm smile sending rays at me._

"_Maxie!" Nudge jumps at me from behind, and I laugh as I stumble. Instead of falling, this time I can catch myself and regain my balance. She obviously doesn't doubt it, because she shuffles her way between us, nudging me hard. Heh, heh. Nudge nudged me._

"_So, when's the –" I'm just about to ask when the bell's going to go, but it answers my question before I can even finish it._

"_PE, art, music, science." Iggy winks at me on the last word and leads us both to the changing rooms, where we split down the hall and I follow Nudge into the girls' room. We set down our bags and begin changing into our PE kits. As we're putting on our regulation tops, I begin some small talk just to get things going. I'm sure PE will be very interesting today._

"_So, d'you know what we're doing today?" I ask, doing up the bottom button on my shirt._

"_I think we're playing rounders."_

_When we follow our teacher onto the field, I find out she was right. There's a game set up outside, and we already know how to play, so all she has to do is divide us into teams: batters and fielders. I'm on the batting team with Iggy today, and Nudge is in the field. Angel stands at the second base, and Nick at the fourth. I'm going to show them up today. The first and third bases are taken up by Dylan, Nick's right-hand yankee, and a shorter guy with blond hair. I think I remember his name being Zephyr._

_I stand third in the line, Iggy just behind me. Suddenly, it's my turn._

"_Run, fatty, run." I hear Angel's sparkling hiss from behind me, but decide to ignore here. Instead, I swing the bat so hard that the ball flies right over the field. While they're staring, I might as well run, so I earn a rounder before someone's even moved to retrieve the ball. And PE goes a lot quicker than usual._

_When we arrive at art, Nudge, Iggy and I sit in a row at the back. Mr Speller tells us just to sketch something _appropriate _in our notebooks because he has a lot of artwork to grade._

_I'm not very good at drawing, but I start with the metal frame and then work down the chains to the chunky plastic seats. Then I sketch in the background, basically just grass and trees. I colour it in afterwards: rusting silver frame, shiny grey chains, red seats, and different green tones for the background. I have drawn the swing set at the park._

_When the bell goes, we head to music. It's in the building next to art, upstairs, and always noisy. Our teacher's name is Mr Moore, and on his door is a sign that says 'One does not simply walk into Moore-door' with a picture of Boromir from Lord of the Rings. I think it's an internet meme?_

_Inside, we are told that we should get into groups to recreate a song, and immediately Nudge grabs mine and Iggy's hands and drags us into the corner. Then she does a little happy dance and squeals at us. "What?" I hold her shoulders in place._

"_I love singiiiiiiiing." She says the last word in a deeper voice, crouching down and stamping her feet._

_Iggy's just laughing. "So what do you wanna sing, Nudge?" I'm not the only one who wants her to just tell us. I don't get it – maybe she wants to be famous or something._

"_I think we should sing What I Said by Coco Jones." She reads our confused expressions and shows us the video on her phone. Wow – that is so completely Nudge. I voice my thoughts._

"_I _know. _So what do you think?"_

"_I can't sing that." Iggy said with a weird look on his face. "I mean, it's too… Nudge?" he flips out his phone too, and shows us Too Close – Alex Clare._

"_That could be fun."_

_As soon as our decision is made, the bell rings for science. Did it really take an hour to decide on a song? I guess there was a lot of arguing, but in the end we did rule out What I Said. No matter how much she begged, Nudge was not getting Iggy into a tutu and heels. That's a shame._

_As we enter science, our teacher Ms Howles is writing 'CHEMICAL PRACTICAL' in big green letters on the whiteboard. There are test tubes and Bunsen burners set up on the desks, so we get goggles and aprons. Once everyone is here, Ms Howles tells us what we are going to be doing this lesson – mixing chemicals. I can already see the glint in Iggy's eye._

_We start mixing. We weren't told what the chemicals were; just to observe what happened when they were combined. Iggy is putting together almost the complete opposite of what we were instructed to pour into the test tubes, but he seems to know very well what he's doing. After a while, the concoction is a murky pumpkin colour, and he winks at me, holding a watery, blood-red liquid. "Boom." He tips the whole thing in, grabs Nudge and I, and dives under the table._

_The lesson ends with a fuming teacher, anxious students, and three teenage culprits busting themselves with laughter._

_Nudge, Iggy and I sit together at our own table at lunch. Of course no one sits with us – why would they want to? We look crazy. Soot still stains our clothes in places, and none of us can wipe the grins off our faces. Every now and then, one of us bursts into a fit of quiet giggles._

_All's good, until a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed bully shows up from behind us._

"_So, Igward. I heard about that little stunt you pulled in science." She puts her hand on her hip and the crew of cheerleaders behind her do the same a second later, in perfect synchronisation. Have they practiced this? I bet they've done it a million times._

"_My name's not Igward," Iggy says breezily; he doesn't seem fazed by her snide suggestion at all._

"_Well, I just came over to warn you not to do it again. It was pathetic. And I was near the firing range – it almost got in my hair and probably lowered Ms Howles' opinion of me. And you know how I value teachers' opinions," she giggles to herself, looking to the side instead of us, and flips her hair. Then her crew copy her perfectly again. Now that's just freaky._

"_Honestly, you say it like we care." I roll my eyes. Usually I don't look for trouble from Angel, but this time I'm confident that eventually I _will _be more popular than her. Not that she knows it._

"_Ugh! Fatsimum, you are so thick," she struts off, clicking her heels, and the others immediately follow. Oh, Angel. But you're even thicker._

_Iggy drives me home in silence – but it's not awkward, it's comfortable._

"_Max – uh," he coughs a little, watching the road intently, "you – uh, you did well today."_

"_I did well? At what?"_

"_You, uh. You just, did well." He shrugs a little, not looking at me._

_I wonder what he means by that._

I retie the ribbon over my diary, placing it carefully on the nightstand beside my bed. I'm ready for bed, so I get under the covers and frown at the ceiling. Today was a good day. I made a lot of progress – maybe that's what Iggy meant.

But I have a feeling that he meant something else.

**A/N: So, there it is. Hope you enjoyed it, and the next update will be up sometime soon. Press that button to tell me what you think – you know what it is. It begins with R! ;)**

**Adios amigos!**

**-Faximum**


	5. I'm Learning Fast

**A/N: Hi everyone. I'm so sorry I haven't updated since last MONTH, I've been doing loads of family stuff – which includes lots and lots of walking in the park. ¬_¬ So I'm updating now, and I'll post another one as soon as I can. Eep :3 And also, to answer to Fiona Siona's review about slowing down, I think I know what you mean, and it **_**is**_** in Max's POV. She's just being an optimistic person. :P And again to anyone who was reading this story, I'm so sorry about not updating in forever! D:**

**Disclaimer: I'll own MR when then sun explodes.**

**Sun: *explodes***

**Does that mean I own MR now? :D**

**JP: No.**

**Oh.**

**-Faximum**

Max's P.O.V.

**Days: 56**

_I wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy – loljk. I wake up in the morning, but not in my bed, where I fell asleep last night. In my back garden, there's a trampoline which I used to love when I was younger. And that's where I wake up, cold, and in my Snoopy pyjamas. I don't even?_

_Getting up, I turn a circle to find the flap exit, and then slip through it. The room that leads onto the garden is the kitchen, which in my opinion is a mistake. Summer flies + open fridge = not a good combination. But I guess it does look good. It's a white, contemporary kitchen with a glass wall on the garden side and black blinds._

_I watch the stairs as I walk up them. The carpeting is a light grey with smudges where people have gone up in muddy boots. That reminds me, I'm barefoot, and my feet will be dirty. I should wash them. As I reach the top of the stairs, I hear a familiar squeal._

"_Maxie-paxie!" Nudge hugs me, a little too tightly. I give her a look that says 'why are you in my house you crazy person' and she lets go. "Wellll. You see I've seen your bedroom and it's not very nice is it so I decided to get it pimped out and I already had loads of fabrics and stuff so I figured I could just do it last night but you would have said no so I'd have to do it without you knowing but THEN you were asleep so you'd wake up and kick me out if I did it while you were in bed so I had to get Iggy and we put you on your trampoline and your parents don't know but it worked!" she says that so quickly I feel like I need a nap. Or a hospital._

"_Wait, back up. Maxie-paxie?" Nudge shakes her head and rolls her eyes at me. _

"_The problem is, I want everyone to be there when you see it, so I'm afraid you can't go in your room until after school." She frowns seriously, talking – thank God – more slowly this time. But if I can't go in my room, I can't get anything that I really need: clothes, my phone… I seem to have said that out loud, because Nudge tuts. "Maxie, Maxie. I thought of everything. Your clothes are in the bathroom, your bag is downstairs, and Iggy's on his way. He's going to drive us to school." Oh, school. I forgot about that. I can't even remember what day it is. "Tuesday. Go change." She pushes me into the bathroom._

_I can just pray that Nudge chose something sensible for me to wear in public as I stare suspiciously at the pile of materials on the side of the bath. After a small hesitation, I decide to trust her, seeing as I have no other choice, and unfold them. Pulling them on and smoothing them down, I look in the mirror to see how it looks on me. I'm wearing a black tank top, grey boyfriend cardigan, white skinny jeans and black fur boots. On both sides of the boots are grey/white pompoms, and there are owl eyes and beaks stitched onto the front, so it looks like I'm wearing owls. My first thought is that there's no colour in it, but it does look nice. Doing up the buttons, I open to door just to get ambushed by a teenage mocha-skinned bucket of pep holding a floaty red scarf, which she loops around my neck._

"_Eee, it's so pretty." She squeals (again), biting her knuckles. "Now downstairs. You have a new bag and its A-DO-RA-BLE." Nudge pushes me downstairs and unhooks something from the bottom of the banister and swings it behind her back. As soon as I turn away to open the door, she plonks it on me and then I realise it's my bag. It matches my new boots, and like Nudge said, it _is _really cute. Not as cute as a plate full of fresh home-baked cookies, but then, cookies have no competition with anything, do they?_

"_Oh, thanks, Nudge." I smile, opening it with my right hand to find it's already packed, and opening the door with my left hand. Before I can step out though, Nudge asks if I've already had breakfast. "No, but I can get something at school, can't I?"_

"_So you're going to eat cafeteria food." Nudge nods. "Let me see how that works out for you."_

"_Good point."_

_So we leave fifteen minutes later, full of French toast._

_As we walk through the gates, I see Iggy's truck near the school, and that jogs my memory. "Hey Nudge," I elbow her in the side, "Wasn't he going to pick us up?" When I look down after her hesitance, she's blushing and has a guilty little smile plastered on her face. _

"_Wellll, about that. I never called him. I just wanted you to hurry up and get me some French toast!" then she runs away. Ugh, children, right? Heh._

_I chase after her anyway. Just in time, because the bell rings._

"_What have you got… now?" I pant a little, because I'll be blunt here, I'm still… well, I'm not thin at all. Yeah, let's put it like that. To my disappointment, Nudge has English, and I have maths. I think Iggy is in maths. He's nowhere near me, but unfortunately, a bunch of guys from Fang's gang are._

_Ten minutes later, I'm sitting in my seat in maths, keeping my head down and trying to ignore the tiny pieces of paper being flicked from my right. "Psst, Maxie. Psst, over here." I give Sam one glance, and he seems to take it as permission to talk to me. "Hey, Maxie. I'm sure you know already, but I just wanted to remind you, so you don't forget, okay?" he says it like he's going to try being nice for once, but that's one of his tricks. He's done this before, so I hardly have to glance at the note he presses onto my desk to know that it says:_

You're fat.

_Yeah, I know, Sam. Did you also know that you're a dipstick?_

"_Maxie-moo. Maxie-moo. Moooo." That's Dylan, trying to nark me, obviously. You know: the delusional one who likes to pretend he's not at least 89% stupid. "Moo. Because you know, you're as big as a cow." Ouch, Dylan. That would really sting if you hadn't already used it 20,000 times before._

"_By the way Max, I know you wouldn't see your own kind this way, but humans like us think cows are ugly." Oh, so now Ari's joining in and calling me ugly. Peachy. And still 12 minutes left of maths. Minutes later I feel something pressed onto my back and immediately take it off. Ari drew a self-portrait (I mean cow) that says moo, and an arrow pointing upwards. I might just keep this. If the tape still works, I can stick it to one of them when we leave._

_What I do next is out of pure annoyance at the fact that there are still 6 minutes left and that Sam is now flicking paper at me again. I pick up the note said person wrote to me, write 'to Mr Hefley' and 'from Ari' above and below where it says 'you're fat' and slide it into Ari's work book when he's not looking. Next time our teacher reads that, he will know exactly what Ari thinks of him._

_The next thing I know, the bell is ringing and I've hardly unpacked anything, so I can just close my textbook and sling my backpack over my shoulder. I follow the surging stream of students out of the door, and as I duck left to art, I nonchalantly tape Ari's cow picture onto Sam's T-shirt._

_When I arrive in art, most people are already in there, including Angel and a few of the cheerleaders who are part of her prissy little posse. I sit quite close to them, which is a pro as well as a con, because I can hear what they're talking about, when they're not bothering me. Nudge and Iggy are in this class too, but it's a single desk layout, so we can't talk much. Mr Speller tells us all to settle down, and sketch something that we aspire towards. There's an old tin of spare graphite pencils on his desk._

_I decide what to draw almost instantly. I do a light outline of three people, two females and one male. Then I add some features, like hair and clothes. It takes me a while to do the faces, because I can never do the noses right. They always end up looking like blueberry muffins. Or trains._

_Once I've finished their faces, I add some details, like Iggy's light freckles and the hair-frizz Nudge denies so firmly. Then I decide to sketch in a background, mostly for sentimental purposes, because the swing set in the park is the place where I met my best friends. Then I fish some basic colouring pencils from my backpack and shade it in. It looks a lot better with colour; after all, it's supposed to be a picture of one of the happiest times of my life._

_Dropping the pencils back in my bag, where they'll probably spend most of the rest of their lives, I check over to see if anything's gone wrong. I curve myself a bit more (I can dream) and then go over our body shapes harder, so that you can see the details over the colours, then sit back to see how it turned out. And let me just say, it turned out great._

_And damn, if it really looks like what I've drawn, day 60 is going to be awesome._

_Lunch is one time that I really like. Nudge, Iggy, and I get a table to ourselves and even better: we get to eat. I've always loved food, especially cookies, and I'm forever trying to cook things but end up exploding the frying pan. Or the fridge… or the entire kitchen. But I guess it's for the best, because food's never done me much good, has it?_

_Today I packed one cookie – store-bought, because my mum hasn't made cookies in ages – a bread roll, a fruit winder and a can of Fanta. As we ate, we talked, and it wasn't really like talking to anybody. It was comfortable, and I could be myself. In class, I was always quiet, and only talked to the teacher when I was asked. With my parents, I'm polite, and always trying to point out achievements that I've made so that they don't regret not having a second child too much. And right now, I know that they'll always be my best friends._

_Religious Studies passes in a breeze. I sit next to the window, so for most of the lesson I just stared at the old oak tree outside. At one point, there was a ginger-and-white tabby sitting on a branch and we stared at each other for about four minutes before it slinked off. I think I remember seeing that cat before, around the neighbourhood._

_The teacher, who was a supply called Mrs Bingham, was telling us something about the 5 Pillars of Islam which we had learned at least sixteen times before in our lives. I guess since religion never changes, they don't really have anything new to teach you. But they could at least teach you about some exotic minority religion than repeating all the ones we know about: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity…_

_Spanish is always more interesting than RS. Today we were learning clothing sentences, and the class is very kinaesthetic, so we were all up sticking sentences to each other's clothes. I'd already stuck "me gusta tu camisa" (I like your shirt) to Iggy and "tu cinturón es bonita" (your belt is pretty) to Nudge when I felt something stuck onto my shoulder, and my friends were in front of me. Everyone was laughing and sticking in their friend groups, so who else would give me a note?_

_I turned, and realised. Oh yeah, that's who. Angel._

"_Hey Max! I just came over to stick that sentence on your outfit. Not that you're smart enough to know what it says." She giggles obnoxiously, and as I do, I notice Nudge has been reading Angel's note and written another of her own. She turns to Angel with a subtle smirk._

"_Ooh, I have a sentence for you too Angel, and I _know _you're going to love it." She comes and sticks it to Angel's blouse with about seven times as much tape as she needs to use, just so that Angel can't peel it off anytime soon; but to my surprise she doesn't even try. She knows Nudge doesn't like her, but Nudge is recognised for her fashion know-how. She probably thinks that it's a compliment._

_Ha-ha, as if._

I re-read my entry to see if there are any mistakes, and I'll admit, I just want to read it again because it makes me laugh. I think I'm getting better at standing up for myself, but sometimes, I do need to do it on my own.

I push the diary under my pillow and plonk my head down. For a while, I just listen to the sounds of the night through my open window. It's really windy, and on a summer day like this, I'm glad of that. I can also hear an animal scuffling, but I'm not sure what it is. It's probably a squirrel or a rat, and I don't think so, but I've seen bats around here before.

I'm pretty pleased with what I did today. I'm learning fast, I think. I don't need to lash out at people, but I can still get back at them in ways they don't expect. I'm sure I've had the potential forever, but I just needed Nudge and Iggy to come along and ignite it. No pun intended.

Those are the last thoughts in my head before I fall asleep, ready for day 6 as I'll ever be.

**A/N: So, did you like Chapter 5? Was it great? Was it boring? Hit the review button if you want to tell me! Was it long enough? Word says its 5 pages, and it took me a couple days (mostly because I can never focus), so I'm hoping it is. I'm trying not to make them too short.**

**Also, I was going to start another Max fic, where Max is 18 and moves to Miami, Florida to go to boarding school. I'm thinking about adding a twist to the traditional Max too, like she's mute or something. Do you think that would be good? I don't have a name or summary yet, but I'm getting around to it. If you're interested or you have any suggestions (I might even try making this a collab with someone?) feel free to review; it helps a lot :]**


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